Trial by Fire
by Regina the Queen of Random
Summary: A trial by fire is an often painful experience that tests character. But are John and Amara willing to risk it for the sake of the other?
1. The Fire of Life

Queen of Random: I am going to hate myself for doing this, as I fear that working on a third fanfic will detract from the other two, but here goes. I am a huge fan of Pyro and Amara romances - Jamara I think it's called, although I have seen it referred to as Amyro, but no matter - so I thought I would have a go at writing my own. Please let me know if this does detract from 'Beauty and the Beast' and 'Role Reversal', but if it turns out to be a success, well, all the better for you, the reader.  
  
I have always thought that this coupling (Pyro and Amara) had far more merit than one between Bobby and Amara - no offense to all of you Bobby and Amara shippers. I mean, if Amara and Bobby had kids (I hope not), what would their powers be? The power to control water, like that guy on Shinzo? Or the power to melt, and become a puddle? (Come on, you've got to admit, that's a really crappy power, even if you could move around as a puddle. Your mother - assuming it was Amara - could evaporate you. Or Pyro, while we're at it). Oops, starting to wander.  
  
As per usual, I do not own any of the characters in this story, unless they happen to be original characters. Then they belong to me. But as there have been no OCs in this story, I do not own anything from X-Men: Evolution.  
  
On with the trial by fire!  
  
Trial by Fire  
  
Chapter One: The Fire of Life  
  
By definition, fire is a rapid, persistent chemical change that releases heat and light, and is accompanied by flame, especially the burning of a combustible substance.  
  
But to John Allerdyce it was far simpler than that.  
  
To him, fire was life.  
  
It was a beautiful, living creature that he alone had the power to control. For he was Pyro, a mutant with the gift of pyrokinesis, or the ability to control fire.  
  
No one in the world understood the reason why John loved fire so much, why it was the one thing he felt had a connection with, that understood him.  
  
At least, that was what he thought.  
  
*  
  
"Magma," said a voice, jolting Amara Aquilla from her daydream. "You're up."  
  
Amara stepped forward, ignoring the smug look Bobby Drake wore. She silently vowed to herself that she would wipe that look off his face. Or if that failed, melt it off.  
  
"You know what you are to do?" asked Scott Summers, although at this point in time he was going by the name of Cyclops, a tribute to the fact that he was forced to wear a ruby-quartz visor, to prevent the powerful optic blasts his mutation caused from causing severe destruction.  
  
Amara nodded. Closing her eyes with concentration, she rubbed her hands together in anticipation. There, inside her was the power. Suddenly, she seemed to catch fire, and become a girl of living flame. Or, perhaps, a girl made from the magma a volcano spills forth during an eruption.  
  
She opened her eyes, and they focused on the target in front of her. Then she raised her hands, and from them shot forth two small balls of fire, or molten lava. The target was destroyed instantly. She repeated the exercise, but made sure that the next target she hit was the one that Bobby, also known as Iceman, had frozen over with his powers.  
  
Amara returned to her normal, non-flame state, and grinned at Bobby.  
  
She was not called Magma for nothing.  
  
*  
  
"How did it go?" asked Kitty Pryde when Amara and the others returned from their early morning training session.  
  
Amara looked at the mutant who went by the name of Shadowcat. "Fine. I guess."  
  
"I guess?" Kitty looked confused. "Did something go wrong?"  
  
Amara shook her head, causing her long, straight dark hair to move in a manner that almost looked like her hair was fluttering in a breeze. "No. Nothing happened."  
  
"She's right," added Bobby. "Nothing happened at all." His voice, however, betrayed the fact that something had indeed happened.  
  
Kitty covered mouth with a hand in an attempt to muffle her giggles. She failed. "What happened? Did Amara melt your ice, Bobby?"  
  
"She toasted him!" interrupted Ray Crisp.  
  
Kitty looked at Ray. With his sharp personality and his quick temper, coupled with his ability to generate electricity which he released from his hands, it was easy to see why he had earned the name of Berzerker during his stay at the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters. Although, now that mutants had been revealed to the public, the Institute was no longer as safe as it had once been.  
  
That was the reason why Rahne Sinclair, the metamorph known as Wolfsbane, had been taken home by her family. The same had happened to Jubilation Lee, affectionately known as Jubilee - perhaps because of her gift of creating colourful displays of energy, almost like jubilee fireworks.  
  
"She did?" asked Kitty.  
  
Jamie Maddrox nodded his small head violently. "She did!"  
  
Bobby tried, and failed, to discreetly hit Jamie on the back of the head to keep him from saying anything more about the way Amara had shown him up.  
  
Of course, it is hard to keep anything discreet when the person you just hit creates multiple copies of himself when struck.  
  
Hence, the name Multiple.  
  
"Anyway," said Kitty, ignoring the presence of five new Jamies. "You guys should all get ready for school." She looked at her watch. "We're, like, going to be late if you guys don't hurry up. And I don't think you can go to school in that, either," she added, pointed to the uniforms all the new recruits were wearing. "I doubt that colour is in, right now."  
  
*  
  
Tap, tap, tap went Amara's fingers as she sat, bored out of her mind, in the back of the classroom. Even the knowledge that, at that very moment, the track team were running right past right below the window Amara was seated next to did not change her gloomy demeanour.  
  
"What's wrong?" ask Tabitha Smith, an explosive blonde in the seat next to Amara. Explosive was the right term to use to describe Tabitha, also known as Boom Boom, whose ability to create small explosives caused other people, human and mutant, to shy away from the vivacious girl. Even the fact that Tabitha had once lived with the Brotherhood of Mutants did not seem to faze anyone. Not even Kitty, and that was her specialty.  
  
"Nothing," said Amara, in response to Tabitha's question. "Nothing's wrong." "Okay." This seemed to satisfy Tabitha's curiosity, and she returned her attention to the track team outside.  
  
But there was something wrong. And it had been wrong for some time. Amara was unsure what it was, but she was sure it had something to do with her powers. She knew that if she tried to tell anyone they would look at her as if she was a freak.  
  
And that would have been the responses of those at the Institute.  
  
God only knew what the human students at Bayville High would do.  
  
But how do you tell someone that your power is calling out to something? Or maybe even someone?  
  
Amara had no idea.  
  
But the thing that scared her most was that she did not know what - or who - her power was reaching out to.  
  
*  
  
John raised a hand so that it was level with his eyes. In the other hand he held a lighter. It was nothing compared to the pack he usually wore on his back, that issued streams of fire from jets on his forearms, but the lighter would do.  
  
With the ease of someone who had done this many times before, John flicked open the lighter, and caused a small tongue of flame to appear.  
  
That was all he needed.  
  
John called out to the flame, and it danced before his eyes, forming patterns in front of him. It always felt special to him, no matter how many times he did it. For each time he used his powers, it was to call a new flame to do his bidding, and so it was special.  
  
The flame changed shape, becoming whatever it was he wished. A dog, a tree, a ball.  
  
Then something happened that he had not planned.  
  
The flame swiftly changed shape, but it was not him doing it. He only watched as the flame transformed into the guise of a young woman. She was tiny, only a few inches tall, and she stood right there on the palm of his hand, the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his life, even more than a bushfire he had seen in his native Australia.  
  
The girl made entirely of fire had her back to John. Then, ever so slowly, she turned around, revealing a face that would haunt him in his dreams.  
  
The small, delicate face, the long hair, the skin he somehow knew was darker than his own - John felt he knew every bit of it. But still he gazed at her, taking in every bit of her, committing her face to memory.  
  
John knew one thing, and that was for certain.  
  
He had to find the girl.  
  
No matter what it took. 


	2. Fire's Loving Embrace

Queen of Random: Well, it seems that this story will go on! Now I just need to organise my time better, as I now have three stories to write, exams to start to think about, holidays to get ready for, a German trip to raise funds for. . . the list is endless. But I do promise that I will do my best to finish these stories, especially 'Beauty and the Beast'. If you haven't read that one yet, I suggest you do, along with 'Role Reversal'. They both seem to be quite popular.  
  
Anyway, one of the things people have been telling me is that I need to make my chapters longer, and so that is what I have tried to do for this chapter. It is slightly longer than usual, so I hope you enjoy!  
  
Trial by Fire  
  
Chapter Two: Fire's Loving Embrace  
  
The sound of heavy footsteps with a metallic ring to them caused John to turn around. Behind him was Piotr Rasputin, the Russian Colossus.  
  
In a movement that was almost painful, John closed his hand around the girl made of fire. "What?" he demanded, annoyed.  
  
"Nothing," replied Piotr.  
  
"Then why are you here?"  
  
"He is coming," was the only reply made.  
  
There was no need to know who he was. The man Piotr spoke of was Magneto, the master of magnetism. Known as Erik Magnus Lensherr in his youth, Magneto had shunned the name his human parents had given him, in favour of a name that truly represented his power. Magneto had the power to manipulate metal, and he was the arch rival - and friend - of Charles Xavier, or Professor X of the X-Men. While Xavier was an idealist who believed that humans and mutants could co-exist peacefully, Magneto took the polar opposite stance, standing firm in his belief that humans were less than mutants, who were destined to rule the world.  
  
If Magneto had his way, humanity's days were numbered.  
  
"What does he want?" asked John, still annoyed. If he had had his way, he would still be staring at the fire girl.  
  
Piotr shrugged his massive shoulders. "I cannot say."  
  
A familiar metallic whirring sound signalled the arrival of Magneto. At his side was Remy Lebeau. Known as Gambit, Remy's mutation allowed his to kinetically charge any item, and have explode on release.  
  
John had always thought that that would be a fun power to have.  
  
But it would be nothing compared to his own pyrokinesis.  
  
"Charles has become to confident in his recruits," announced Magneto. "He still thinks that we can live in harmony with humans. He hopes to show off his X-Men as fine examples of that. We need to remind him that the path he hopes to take will not be as easy as he thinks it will be."  
  
"What shall we do?" asked Piotr.  
  
"We shall remind him that we are still around, that we have not fled in fear like cowards."  
  
"How?"  
  
"We will attack them where it would hurt them the most. The Xavier Institute." Magneto looked around. "It will only take one of us to pass on the message." Magneto's eyes focused on John. "Pyro. You shall be the one to remind the X-Men of our presence."  
  
John smiled. This would be fun, if not something to distract him from the girl who had come to him like an angel made entirely of the fire, the thing he loved and worshipped most.  
  
*  
  
Amara paid no attention to what she was doing, and who she was passing, as she ran through the Institute. At least, until she ran into someone who was like a wall in her path.  
  
"Watch where you're going," said an angry voice.  
  
Amara looked up to find herself staring into the face of Logan. Known as Wolverine, Logan was a powerful presence at the Institute. Always one for breaking the rules, he had a deep and powerful affection for the students who lived at the Institute.  
  
Not that he would ever admit to it.  
  
"Sorry, Logan," mumbled Amara.  
  
"What's wrong with you?" asked Logan, suspicious. He knew all of the students well enough to know when something was wrong with one of them.  
  
"Nothing," replied Amara. Not willing to risk blurting anything else out, she took off down the hall, avoiding the worried gazes of some of the other students at the Institute.  
  
*  
  
Amara lay on her bed, thinking about what was wrong with her. No one would - or could - understand what had been happening to her recently. Her dreams had been filled with fire - not that that was unusual. As a mutant whose very veins seemed to flow with molten lava, and whose skin burned with heat, Amara was no stranger to fire.  
  
But these dreams had been unusual. In them, Amara was not the one in control of the fire that surrounded her. But when the fire had changed that was what had caused her to be worried. In the most recent of dreams, Amara had transformed herself into her fire form, but that was when the line between reality and fantasy seemed to blur. When she was all fired up, she felt something draw the fire from her body.  
  
Yet she had welcomed it. It was - well, there was only one way to describe it, and that way made her feel like she was not in control.  
  
The only phrase that described the way the fire was drawn from her body, and returned in patterns that swirled and danced before her eyes, was a lover's embrace.  
  
And somehow she knew she was close, too. For every time she opened her eyes, and woke from the dream, she could swear that the figure of a young man had appeared in front of her, and wrapped his arms around her fiery form.  
  
And he was not harmed by the fire.  
  
*  
  
John smiled as he looked at the security measures of the Xavier Institute. They wouldn't be so hard to get around, even if he wanted to.  
  
But for this job he needed to be noticed. So, as he made his way towards the mansion that housed Xavier's mutant student, and the older mutants who taught them, John made sure to trip the security measures.  
  
He had announced his arrival.  
  
And all he had to do was wait for his welcome.  
  
*  
  
The thoughts of her dreams still churning in her mind, Amara rolled over, and buried her face in her pillow. She tried to ignore the sounds of the other students of the Institute, but she could not ignore the danger signal. Groaning with annoyance, Amara dragged herself off her bed, and made her way to her closet. She pulled out her uniform, and struggled to put it on.  
  
She tried to focus on the danger ahead, and not on the man from her dreams.  
  
But fate had other things in mind.  
  
*  
  
Almost all of the occupants of the Institute raced outside to face the person who had set off the alarms. As the X-Men had left the Institute with Wolverine for a special training exercise, it was only Magma's fellow new recruits that were to face the stranger. The only adult in the vacinity was Ororo Munroe, though at this time she was the mutant Storm.  
  
Magma was the last of the group to arrive, and so was the last to see the face of the intruder. But when she did, and he saw her face, her world was turned upside down forever.  
  
Magma's stomach twisted as soon as she saw him. It was neither a good nor a bad thing, but some frightening combination of the two.  
  
Please no, she prayed silently. Anyone but him.  
  
But it was him. And Magma knew it.  
  
Every fiber in her body started singing when he looked at her, and every particle in her being was tingling with energy.  
  
She was on fire.  
  
Not literally, of course.  
  
And somehow, she knew he was affected, too. He was hiding it well, but not so well she could not see it. To her, his surprise was written all over his face.  
  
"Well, well, well," said the stranger, managing to tear his gaze away from Magma's face. "Don't tell me you're the only ones defending this place."  
  
"Fine then," said Boom Boom, her voice showing no sign of fear. "We won't tell you."  
  
"Who are you?" demanded Iceman. As he spoke, his entire body transformed into ice.  
  
The stranger smiled, a cold frightening smile that seemed to cause ice to seep into Magma's bones. "I'm Pyro."  
  
"Nice outfit," replied Boom Boom. "I like the backpack. And the wrist bands are a nice touch."  
  
Pyro smiled again, and raised his hands. "These are more than just decoration. Watch."  
  
Out of his pack roared a pair of flames. He manipulated the fire so that two balls hovered just above the palms of his hands.  
  
He smiled, set his sights again on Magma, and launched the fireballs at her. 


	3. Worshipping the Fire Goddess

Queen of Random: I know I said I could not write any more. . . but I lied. I lied big time! So here is the next chapter. Enjoy!  
  
Trial by Fire  
  
Chapter Three: Worshipping the Fire Goddess  
  
Magma just stared at the roaring flames that came flying at her. She was paralyzed, not with fear, but because that for some reason that eluded her, she felt betrayed by him.  
  
"Look out!" cried a voice.  
  
It was like a reflex. Magma raised her hands in an attempt to shield herself, at the same time she transformed herself into her fiery form.  
  
Just as the fireballs were about to hit her, they veered away. Pyro had stopped them from hitting her.  
  
"Amara!" shouted Boom Boom. "You okay?!"  
  
Magma was shaking, although it was not from fear - she had been shaking before Pyro had attacked her. She was shaking because of some weird reason she could not explain. She felt like she was connected to Pyro.  
  
"I'm fine," she said finally. She looked at herself, and then transformed back to normal.  
  
Pyro was just staring at Magma. He shook his head, as if trying to clear itself of something, fog perhaps. Then he managed to compose himself. "Fire. Well, I did not expect that."  
  
A bolt of lightening struck the ground at Pyro's feet. "I suggest that if you value your health and safety, you leave," warned Storm. "Go back to Magneto and tell him that we are not so easily frightened. Or defeated."  
  
"If you insist," said Pyro, before dashing away.  
  
No one gave the look he shot at Magma before he left a second thought.  
  
No one, that is, except Magma herself.  
  
*  
  
As soon as the situation had been dealt with - by Pyro running away - those at the Xavier Institute returned to what they had been doing prior to the alarm going off.  
  
For Amara that meant she was thinking, and this time she had even more to think about.  
  
Pyro.  
  
She turned the word over and over in her head, thinking about it - or rather, him - from every angle. Why had he attacked her, of all people? Why not Storm, who posed the biggest threat, and not some little girl who he had never met? And why had he stopped his attack from hitting her once she had transformed?  
  
But that was not what she was really worried about.  
  
Why had she felt so betrayed by him when he had attacked her? And why did she feel connected to him, as well?  
  
Amara had no idea.  
  
A knock at the door dragged Amara from her thoughts. "Hey, Tabitha."  
  
Tabitha entered the room, and sat next to Amara on the bed. "You okay, girl?" she asked, her tone light, but her eyes serious.  
  
Amara nodded. "Yeah. Just a little shaken up, though."  
  
"I'm not surprised. That guy - what was his name?"  
  
"Pyro," supplied Amara before she could even think about what Tabitha might say or do.  
  
"That's it. Ororo says he's a pretty powerful mutant."  
  
"He is?" asked Amara. She tried not to let her voice betray her eagerness to know more about the mutant with the hair the colour of fire.  
  
Tabitha nodded her head vigorously. "Yeah! Ororo said that she fought him that day that mutants were exposed."  
  
Amara's heart almost stopped beating in her chest. "But wouldn't that mean- " she began, trying to ignore the pain in her chest.  
  
"He's one of Magneto's crew."  
  
"What?" Amara almost demanded.  
  
"He's with Magneto," repeated Tabitha.  
  
"But - but he only looks so young!"  
  
"I know! He only looks to be - what, about seventeen?" asked Tabitha. "I wonder if he has a girlfriend," she said, more to herself that to Amara.  
  
"Tabitha! He's our enemy!"  
  
Tabitha frowned. "You're right." She stood up from her seat on the bed. "See you later, Amara." With that, she left the room.  
  
Amara's own words came rushing back to haunt her once her friend had left.  
  
Our enemy.  
  
Amara knew that to have any feelings for the enemy was wrong.  
  
Then why did something about it feel so right?  
  
*  
  
He had not wanted to do it.  
  
He had not wanted to do it at all.  
  
But he had to know.  
  
As soon as he saw the girl's face, he knew who she was. The fire angel he had seen before Magneto had arrived.  
  
John had not wanted to attack her, but it was the only way for him to know if she really was the angel, or if it was some kind of cruel trick the world had played on him.  
  
But it was not a trick, and she was no mere illusion.  
  
She was a fire goddess, a thing more beautiful than fire itself.  
  
No, that was not quite true.  
  
The girl was fire, so she could not be more beautiful than fire.  
  
"What is wrong with me?"  
  
Something was really bothering John about the girl. Wait, she had a name. Amara.  
  
"A beautiful name for an even more beautiful girl."  
  
Again John shook his head. What was wrong with him? As soon as he had left the Institute, something inside him had changed. No, it had occurred earlier than that. The change had happened as soon as he saw her face.  
  
Trying to regain control of himself, John drew his lighter from his pocket. The best way for him to control himself was by controlling something else. As a new flame was born from the lighter, John realised something. He did not have to try and fight it. Actually, that would have been the worst thing for him to do at that point. He would have to treat this like another part of his power - he had to embrace it.  
  
And the only way for him to do that was by finding that girl - Amara - and not having the X-Men interfere with what he wanted to do.  
  
But how to do that?  
  
John smiled, the answer coming to him.  
  
Amara went to school, right?  
  
And the X-Men couldn't be with her all the time.  
  
Perfect. 


	4. Once Burned, Twice Shy

Queen of Random: All right! Next chapter: complete! I have been working double-time on all my stories (including this one). But double-time does not really mean a lot, now that I have a few more stories to work on. One of those is my new X-Men: Evolution story, 'Fire + Water = Steam?' It is about Pyro's holiday to New Zealand. I think the blurb goes, "Broke, and in a strange country, Pyro finds himself in the company of a beach-loving blonde. There's just one problem - she's hydrokinetic!" Yep, Pyro forces his company on a girl named Nicki, who has the power to control water (she's an OC, by the way). The two of them do not get along on quite a few things - human-mutant relations, All Blacks vs the Wallabies, Pyro's shorts, and stuff like that. Yes, I did mention Pyro's shorts. As Nicki loves the beach (she's a surfer) he tags along, and wears these little shorts which are bright red and have orange flames on them. Not to give too much away, it's pretty much a story about Pyro annoying a girl. Perhaps I should just call this story 'The Adventures of Pyro in New Zealand'. What do you think?  
  
Trial by Fire  
  
Chapter Four: Once Burned, Twice Shy  
  
The gravel crunched underneath John's feet as he neared Bayville High. He looked up to see a familiar face near a window on the second floor.  
  
Amara was in Chemistry at that very moment.  
  
And John could not only sense the fire within her in that room, but also fire coming from another source in the room.  
  
The students were heating metal in order to witness the reaction of metal and oxygen.  
  
That gave John an idea.  
  
*  
  
The blue flame from the bunsen burner hit the magnesium Amara was holding in her tongs, causing it to suddenly burn with a bright white light.  
  
"Cool," whispered Amara, shielding her eyes by placing a hand above her safety glasses.  
  
She did not notice a pair of eyes watching her from behind a shield of leaves in the tree that stood opposite the window Amara was standing next to.  
  
As the light of the magnesium faded away, leaving the white powder - magnesium oxide - that the students were to be studying, Amara went to turn off the gas that fuelled the flame, but before she could do so, the blue flame suddenly went orange, and rose into the air.  
  
"What the?!" cried the teacher, having turned when another student screamed. "What are you doing?!"  
  
"It - it's not me!" cried Amara.  
  
"Don't lie to me, mutant. I know your power is fire!"  
  
"But it's not me!" she replied.  
  
"Then how do you explain that!" asked the teacher, pointing. The fire was dancing in patterns above the burner.  
  
Suddenly, the fire flew away from the burner, and began swirling around Amara. It swept up her hair and caressed her cheek, not burning her at all. Amara reached out with her hand to try and hold onto the flame, but it escaped her grasp, and returned to the bench, where it began to form a shape, burning in onto the wood.  
  
Then it vanished, revealing what it had made permanent on the wood - a single word, unable to be removed, there to stay for a long time.  
  
Amara.  
  
*  
  
John watched, dismayed, as the teacher told Amara to stay behind after class to clean up the mess he had made.  
  
He had not meant to get her in trouble, only to get her attention.  
  
Well, he had gotten that, as Amara was busy grumbling that she was about to miss her lift home because she had to stay after school to clean up.  
  
John was about to get into trouble as well, only he did not know that at the time.  
  
He had wanted to be noticed, and that was what happened.  
  
Somebody had spotted him up the tree, and wasn't too happy about it.  
  
"Who are you, and what are you doing up there?!"  
  
John looked down, to see an angry man in a suit and wearing glasses glaring up at him. "Who are you, and what are you doing down there?!" demanded John, copying the man's tone.  
  
"I am Edward Kelly, and I am the principal of this school! Now who are you?!"  
  
"I'm Pyro, a mutant up a tree!"  
  
Kelly paled. "A - a mutant?!"  
  
"No, a koala!"  
  
"What?! Get down from that tree! Now!"  
  
"All right, all right!" grumbled John. He jumped down from the tree, and faced Kelly. He took out his lighter, and brandished it at Kelly.  
  
"What are you going to do with that?"  
  
John smiled, and made a very slow motion of creating a flame in his hand. Kelly tried to run, but fell over. Then he tried to crawl away, while John let out his crazy-person laugh.  
  
The flame rushed towards the target in front of John.  
  
Kelly leapt up with a shout of pain. "You'll will be in a lot of trouble for that!" he shouted, running away, giving John a good look at his handiwork.  
  
You see, John had burned the words 'kick me' onto the seat of Kelly's pants.  
  
Revealing his bright pink underpants.  
  
John walked away, laughing.  
  
He had a certain spitfire to meet, and he did not want to be late.  
  
*  
  
"I can't believe it," muttered Amara, as she walked along the footpath to the bus stop. "It wasn't even my fault. I can't do that!"  
  
Amara looked up to see the bus she was supposed to be catching drive past her. "Hey! Wait!" she shouted, starting to run after it.  
  
But it was too fast, and Amara was left behind.  
  
Dejected, Amara sat down on the footpath, thinking that she would just wait for the next bus to come along. She buried her face in her hands, and tried not to think about what the adults at the Institute would say to her about the incident in class.  
  
Amara was not so distracted that she did not notice the shadow that loomed over from behind her.  
  
Amara leapt up and whirled around.  
  
To find herself face to face with a silhouette of a teenage male, created by the sun, which was right behind him. The sun did light up his hair, which was short and spiky, and made up of the colours of fire.  
  
Amara's heart began beating at least twice as fast as normal when she realised who it was.  
  
Pyro.  
  
"G'day, mate."  
  
Amara almost leapt back. "I am not your mate! I am far to young to be thinking about that kind of thing, and with the likes of you - why are you laughing at me?! It's not funny!"  
  
"Where I come from, a mate is a friend."  
  
Amara, deflated, said, "Oh. But I'm not your friend, either!" she shot back. "What do you want with me, Pyro?!"  
  
"John."  
  
"Excuse me?"  
  
"John," he repeated. "My name is John. John Allerdyce to be exact."  
  
Amara had nothing to say to that.  
  
"We haven't been properly introduced," said John. "I am John Allerdyce, and you are?"  
  
"Amara. Amara Aquilla." The fact that John was standing right in front of her caused her tongue to twist into knots, meaning she couldn't speak.  
  
John bowed gallantly. "'Tis an honour."  
  
"'Tis an honour?" asked Amara, confused. Finally she found her own mind, no longer suppressed by the presence of the mutant in front of her. "Is there something wrong with you?!" she demanded. "You got me in trouble with my teacher!"  
  
"I didn't mean to."  
  
Amara placed her hands on her hips. "Then what did you mean to do?"  
  
"Get your attention?" asked John hopefully.  
  
Amara spun on her heel, trying to ignore the light-headed feeling that had consumed her. "Well you got it. I hope you are proud of yourself, as I am now in trouble with my teacher, and probably with Principal Kelly, too."  
  
John laughed. "You don't need to worry about him, gorgeous."  
  
The sinking feeling in her stomach was not just Amara suppressing the emotions that John had stirred up. She spun around again. "What?" she demanded of John. "What did you do to him?"  
  
"Nothin' much. Just - have you ever heard the saying, 'Liar, liar, pants on fire'?"  
  
Amara's jaw dropped. "You didn't!"  
  
The grin on John's face told her that he did.  
  
Amara laughed - she just couldn't help herself. "Oh, I wish I could have seen that!" Noticing the look in John's eyes, she added, "Not that I want to."  
  
"Well, that's too bad," said John sadly. Then he brightened. "Say, Amara. You and I have something in common."  
  
Amara eyed him suspiciously. "We do?"  
  
"Sure we do! Fire!" John moved closer to Amara, and placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'd say that our powers make us closer than any other two mutants I have ever met. What do you think?"  
  
Amara stood there, frozen under his touch. A part of her wanted to grab his hand and throw it away, and then run as fast as she could. But the other half. . . it wanted to do something she had never really felt like doing before.  
  
So, unsure of both him and herself, she just stood there, staring into his eyes. They were amazing eyes, that held a quality she had never seen before. His eyes seemed to capture her very mind, and draw it in, as if it was about to drown her in his inner fire. They made her want to reach out, place a gentle hand behind his neck, pull his face close to hers, and. . .  
  
No.  
  
Her reason broke through her confusion. How could she even have thought something like that? She had said it before, and it had been haunting her ever since.  
  
He's our enemy.  
  
Somehow, she managed to break away from his compelling gaze. "You're my enemy," she whispered, under her breath. She was unsure that he had even heard her.  
  
With that she took off, before she could betray herself by saying anything more. 


	5. Feeding the Flames

Queen of Random: Well, here's another chapter of 'Trial by Fire', the least popular of all my X-Men: Evolution fics. Sigh. But, lucky for you, there are enough people out there reviewing this story so that I know that there are people out there actually reading this. I'd also just like to apologise in advance for the. . . mushiness (that's what a friend has deemed it). . . of this chapter. It's just that I have been reading the whole 'Night World' series of books by L.J. Smith, and that has sort of been rubbing off on me and my writing style. I'd also like to apologise for the fact that this chapter is so short, but it felt right to end it where it does. And sorry if this one takes so long to update, as this one is the most difficult to write, as I want to make it as good as possible, so it takes me a while before it gets up to my standards. So, sorry.  
  
As per usual, I do not own anything. Not X-Men: Evolution, nor the 'Night World' series of books, or anything else.  
  
Trial by Fire  
  
Chapter Five: Feeding the Flames  
  
Amara ran almost all the way to the Institute, and even when she passed through the gates she still did not relax. What had she been thinking? Why had she wanted to do that?  
  
The answer seemed to scream itself at her.  
  
You have a connection - you can't deny it.  
  
But I don't want a connection, she almost spat back at the voice.  
  
Try telling that to John. He won't give up, you know.  
  
Amara had to swallow the scream that was building up inside of her. She did not want this. She did not want it at all. And yet. . . a part of her wanted it so desperately, it scared her.  
  
But why her? Why John?  
  
The voice had nothing to say about that.  
  
*  
  
John was angry.  
  
Not with her - he could never be angry with her - but with himself.  
  
He had been so close, and he had let her slip through his fingers.  
  
But the thought of that face. . . those gentle eyes. . . and the fire hidden inside that innocent form seemed to burn through the anger he felt, leaving him vulnerable. He felt like he was open to an attack. Even though he knew what he wanted, he did not know why he wanted it. It was like she had woven a spell around him, bewitching his senses, and controlling his mind, so he could only think of one thing.  
  
The thought of her, Amara, was consuming him like a blaze, destroying him by burning him from the inside out.  
  
Starting with his heart.  
  
Yes, he realised it now. It was more than just a feeling of having something in common, it was a link that bound the two of them together, a bond that could not be broken, now that it had been forged. No one would - or could - tear the two apart, now that they had found each other.  
  
They just had to be reunited, and then John would explain everything to the angel made of fire.  
  
His need for Amara was bordering on obsession now.  
  
But he brushed that concern away, as he needed to feed the flames that burned inside him and his heart.  
  
And he needed Amara for that.  
  
*  
  
Amara did not want to talk to anyone at the Institute. She just wanted to be left alone, to sort through these emotions that were churning inside of her by herself.  
  
No one there would have understood what she was feeling, anyway.  
  
The sight of Jean and Scott together on her way to her room caused a pang in Amara's heart.  
  
It was then that she realised what she wanted, what she needed.  
  
It was John.  
  
But why? she asked herself silently. Why did it have to be him? I didn't ask for this?  
  
She did not know - or understand - that fate often played games with people, the same way a goddess would trifle with peoples' hearts, making them fall in love with people that were completely wrong for them in every way - from different social classes, different personalities, different religions, anything.  
  
She could even make you fall in love with your greatest enemy.  
  
And once you were caught in her spell, and looking into the chosen person's eyes, and you were in their arms. . .  
  
There was no escape. You were doomed.  
  
You were in love. A love so deep and so strong that no one could overcome it. A love that could forge alliances, break bonds. . .  
  
And even destroy lives.  
  
For if you tried to escape from this love - even though you knew from the beginning it would be impossible - you would never feel exactly the same again. You would feel empty, incomplete, as if a part of you was missing.  
  
For that would be true. The other person was your other half, the one who completed you.  
  
The other half of your soul. . . if you found them.  
  
If you were that lucky.  
  
For the chances of actually finding that one person you were meant to be with. . . it was almost impossible, just a dream that poets and writers conjure up to add to the thrill and excitement of their words.  
  
The concept of this cascaded over Amara like waves, and she was being pushed under by it, drowning with a realisation.  
  
It was John.  
  
John was the one.  
  
And at the very moment that she realised that, her heart broke in two. 


	6. Visions of Fire

Queen of Random: Well, here it is, chapter six of Trial by Fire. Hope it hasn't been too long since I last posted. I was away over my summer holidays doing stuff. But it gave me a lot of time to think about what I was going to write next. I was at a camp, working as a adult, helping to supervise and run a programme for over 2000 girls. So one night, a few friends and I were discussing what things our favourite mutants might be doing if they were also working on this kind of camp. Of course, we had to have Kitty with the catering crew, and Logan as her handy-dandy chopping device. Rahne would find the kids who got lost during orienteering (and we really did lose a few girls doing that, but we found them. . . eventually!), and Xavier would be the counsellor. His most important job would be to help the person sent late at night to find Scott and Jean. . . and who did find them. . . out in the forest. Moving on, Amara would have been the campfire, and John would be the person in charge of the campfire sing-along. We also had Piotr working on the flying fox (which was the activity I helped run), pulling the cable down so others could unhook the person who had just come down. Of course, he would let go a tad too soon, and the person doing the unhooking would end up suspended in the air, hanging from the wire (which did happen, trust me). Oh, and going back to Kitty being on catering, Pietro is making a fortune smuggling fast food into the camp. Those were the main jobs that they had, unless you have any others. By the end of the camp, my friends, who know that I write as Regina, the Queen of Random, were telling me that I should just go ahead and turn it into a story. Maybe I could make it interactive as well. What do you think?  
  
Trial by Fire  
  
Chapter Six: Visions of Fire  
  
Later that evening, at dinner, Amara did her best to try an conceal the day's events from the adults and the other students, in particular Xavier and Jean. After all, you don't want the two house psychics to know that there is something between you and someone who's working for the very man you are supposed to be fighting against.  
  
"Something wrong, Amara?" asked Ororo, concern in her blue eyes.  
  
A false smile on her face, Amara replied, "No. Nothing's wrong. Why?"  
  
Ororo frowned slightly, the worry on her face obvious. "You haven't been right since Pyro's attack."  
  
"It's understandable," added Xavier. "From what Ororo and the other tells me, he attacked you directly."  
  
"It would be strange if you weren't affected by something like that," said Hank, adding his own voice to the mix.  
  
Affected, thought Amara to herself. Nice choice of words.  
  
Out loud she said, "I'm not feeling too good. May I be excused?"  
  
"Of course."  
  
*  
  
John watched as Amara returned to her room after leaving the dinner table early. He was in yet another tree, this one giving him a prime spot for looking into the Institute. He smiled to himself briefly as the idea of him being a Peeping Tom fluttered through his head like a candle in a breeze.  
  
Peeping John was more like it.  
  
But it was not like anything major was happening, so, in his eyes, he wasn't doing anything wrong. He was just checking on his fire angel, making sure she was all right.  
  
She was not all right, as she was clearly agitated. But whether it was because of what had happened that afternoon, or she was affected by his presence, he could not tell.  
  
He only knew that he needed to do something, and to do it fast.  
  
Suddenly he snapped his fingers, the perfect idea coming to him.  
  
*  
  
Finally Amara drifted off to sleep, so worn out by the day's events that she had not even changed out of the clothes she had worn that day. As soon as her eyes closed, she returned to the dream which had been haunting her for some time now.  
  
In the beginning, she was in complete darkness, and she could see nothing. She could sense the presence of others around her, and dimly hear their voices, but she did not know who or where they were. She felt cold, an odd thing for a mutant who was flame itself, and had lava flowing in her veins instead of blood.  
  
And then a hand reached out and took her own, while another hand gently took hold of her chin, lifting her eyes up.  
  
Suddenly, beyond all of her will and reason, she burst into flame, and the entire area around her was lit up. For a moment she could see her fellow X- Men and team-mates, as well as some other mutants she had never seen before, but then they vanished, burned away by her brilliance.  
  
And for the first time she could see the face of the man who held her so tenderly, his arms strong and protective, but gentle at the same time.  
  
But not for long, as he moved his head, and gently kissed her on the forehead. She could feel the warmth of his lips against her skin, bringing her to life, heightening every sense.  
  
And with those heightened senses, she could feel his lips move from her forehead down through her hair, to her eyes, to her cheek.  
  
But before he kissed her on the lips, he pulled away, and his eyes were so infinitely sad that Amara could feel the tears well up in her own eyes.  
  
"I'm sorry," he whispered.  
  
And then he pushed her away, and everything went dark again.  
  
Both in her mind and with her voice she screamed, piecing the darkness that surrounded her, calling out for him.  
  
"John!"  
  
*  
  
That scream echoed throughout the mansion, and everyone there heard it, whether they were asleep or awake.  
  
John heard it, too, even though he thought he was out of earshot. But the way he heard it was not with his ears, but with his mind. . . or perhaps his soul.  
  
Amara's scream tore through him, ripping him apart, hurtling him into agony. The pain that she felt was passed on to him, and he felt it increasing with every heartbeat. She was in pain, and so was he. He could feel her loneliness, her sorrow, and every other emotion she was feeling. But the most important thing he could feel was her scream, and what she was screaming. He could feel her call out for him, reaching for him with her heart, but draw back, something stopping her from giving in to some primal instinct she was feeling.  
  
Suddenly it stopped, and John was thrown back, released from whatever it was that had taken hold of him. He breathed in short, shallow gasps, as if he had nearly been drowned - which was a good way of describing that feeling of being overwhelmed by something so powerful, so pure, so beautiful. . . and so Amara.  
  
It was her spirit, her soul, her essence that had done that, that had called out to him, that was in pain, and that needed him so badly it hurt.  
  
But he was hurt, too, and as much as he wanted to, needed to, he could not go to her.  
  
He would have to wait, at least until the X-Men left her side.  
  
*  
  
Kitty was the first to enter Amara's bedroom, phasing through the closed door. She rushed to Amara's bedside, and knelt by the distraught girl. "Amara, what's wrong?"  
  
But Amara did not seem to hear her. She had her face buried in her hands, although that did not hide the fact that she was crying. She spoke as if Kitty was not even there, as though she was speaking to someone else, someone Kitty could not see.  
  
"Why did you go? So close, so close. Don't go. Don't be sorry. Why did you go?"  
  
Kitty was silent for a moment, then she tried again. "Amara? Who are you talking to?" "I thought we had something in common. You said so yourself. Don't go! Don't leave me here! I need you!"  
  
"Kitty, you can go now."  
  
Kitty turned around to see Xavier, Ororo, Logan and Hank all at the doorway. "All right, professor," she replied, standing up. She started walking to the door, but stopped next to Xavier. "Is she going to be all right?"  
  
"Go back to bed, Kitty." Xavier's voice was firm. Kitty disappeared through the wall.  
  
After Kitty left, Xavier rolled over to Amara's bed. "Amara?" he asked, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Amara?"  
  
Under his touch, Amara seemed to jerk into wakefulness. Her hands dropped from her face, and she stared at him with fearful eyes, her lip trembling.  
  
"Are you all right, Amara?"  
  
Amara looked around, and saw the other adults watching her, concern in their eyes. She took in a deep breath, her chest rattling, before finally speaking. "I think so."  
  
"What happened?" asked Ororo. "We could hear you screaming."  
  
"I - I had a nightmare, I guess," she said quietly.  
  
"What about? Do you remember?"  
  
Amara thought about it for a minute, her mind clearing, and the fear receding. "No. I don't remember."  
  
Xavier smiled slightly. "That's not uncommon. Are you all right now?"  
  
Amara nodded. "Yeah. I'm fine. You can go back to bed now."  
  
"All right," said Hank. "We'll let you go back to sleep. Good night."  
  
"Good night."  
  
*  
  
After the incident with Amara, everyone returned to their bed, and quickly returned to the depths of sleep. Even Amara, although she was quite shaky after what had happened.  
  
But it was more the fact that she had lied to Xavier and the others that was keeping her up, rather than the dream itself.  
  
She could remember it clearly, in such vivid detail that she swore it had been real.  
  
But the thing that troubled her the most was the role that John had played in it, and the feelings that he had caused to rise and swell inside her. Just the though of him caused her heart to beat faster, and her temperature rise.  
  
But she did eventually go to sleep, and she returned to him in her dreams.  
  
But in this one he spoke to her, more than just the brief apology of the previous dream.  
  
Her eyes snapped open, and her vision was filled with fire.  
  
*  
  
Tabitha woke up a while after she had gone back to sleep. Her stomach gave a slight growl, so she decided to satisfy her hunger. After all, no one would miss a few cookies from the jar.  
  
Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she wandered past Amara's bedroom, barely noticing that the door was open.  
  
About a few seconds later, and a few metres further down the hall, she stopped, and started walking back.  
  
Not long afterwards, Tabitha burst into Ororo's room, the slam of the door, coupled with Tabitha's shout, dragging the woman into wakefulness.  
  
"Amara's gone!" 


	7. Lost in Flames

Regina: Okay, sorry for those of you who have been waiting for more of 'Beauty and the Beast', or 'Role Reversal', but I had more of 'Trial by Fire' to write instead. I promise that the next chapter I write will be for 'Beauty and the Beast', and then 'Role Reversal'. But for those of you who like 'Trial by Fire', then be happy, because this is the next bit!  
  
Sorry this has taken me so long, it's just that school has started up again, and I have been busy working on my websites. Yes, websites, plural. The first one, Randomland, is my personal site, and it can be found The other one will not really be up for a while yet, although the front page is up now, if you want to go check it out. It's called 'Mutant High', and it's and X-Men movie site. It's focused more on the students at the school, but everything is told from a (fictional) student's point of view. The mutant, by the way, is Nicki, from 'God defend New Zealand', as I could not be stuffed thinking up a new character. The site will also have my interpretations of stuff that happened, which was not shown in the movies, like what happened after Colossus and co. made it out of the mansion after Stryker came along. Anyways, the site is although don't expect too much there just yet.  
  
Gotta go, as I have more to write, and more of my websites to work on!  
  
Trial by Fire  
  
Chapter Seven: Lost in Flames  
  
Ororo sat up with a start. "What?!" she demanded of the girl at her bedside.  
  
"Amara's gone!" repeated Tabitha, obviously distraught at her friend's disappearance.  
  
"What do you mean, 'gone'?" asked Ororo. "Are you sure she's just not somewhere else in the mansion?"  
  
"I went past her bedroom, and the door was open. She wasn't in her bed!" added Tabitha abruptly. "So I looked around, and she wasn't anywhere. So I went back to her room, just in case - and it was still empty!"  
  
"Where could she be?" asked Ororo, running a hand worriedly through her white hair.  
  
"I don't know," replied Tabitha, 'but I think it has something to do with Pyro."  
  
*  
  
Amara wandered through the flames, searching. What it was that she was searching for she did not know, however she knew that she had to find it. If she didn't. . . it would be disaster.  
  
These flames had filled her vision since her eyes had opened - how long ago that was, however, she did not know. In this state she had no sense of time, but no real reason for it either.  
  
All that mattered was what she was looking for.  
  
Nothing beyond the sphere of fire that surrounded her mattered, and she could not feel it either. She did not feel the ground beneath her feet change - from the smooth surface of flooring to the rough earth and grass. She did not realise that her hand had moved to open a door that had blocked her path, and she had not noticed that she was outside, no longer safe within the confines of the mansion.  
  
She followed the thing that was calling her, drawing her towards it. It bade the fire inside of her to come to it, to merge, to blend, and to become strong.  
  
Oh, how she wanted to find what she was looking for! How she wanted to know what siren song was calling her beyond the safety of her world! And how she wanted to be with it, to become one with it, for with it she belonged.  
  
Suddenly a voice broke though her dreamworld, shattering the glass that had her cocooned, and dragging her out of the flames that kept her safe and warm.  
  
"Amara?"  
  
At the sound of the voice, something strange happened. Stranger than what had happened every time before. Instead of the voice sending her spiralling into heaven, or into chaos, it did the complete opposite.  
  
It brought her crashing down to earth.  
  
She re-entered her own body with such suddenness that she almost fell to her knees, the force that surrounded her was that strong.  
  
But what was it?  
  
Amara tried to get back to her feet, but the strain was too much. Everything went blurry, and the last thing that she could discern was the strong, but gentle arms that carried her away, and into the night.  
  
*  
  
Except for a few yawns here and there, the students of the Xavier Institute were wide awake, concern for the their friend and team-mate keeping sleep at bay.  
  
Under the orders of the teachers, they had all been searching for the missing Amara, each one of them using their own unique talents to look for the girl. At least a dozen Jamies had scoured the mansion, looking for any clues as to where she might be.  
  
They had found none.  
  
Jean and Ororo had taken to the air, hoping to catch a glimpse of Amara.  
  
But they, too, found none.  
  
Logan used his extra keen senses, hoping to pick up Amara's trail.  
  
It went cold as soon as he left her room.  
  
And while everyone else searched the grounds, Xavier used Cerebro, hoping to find her.  
  
But she was not using her powers.  
  
Amara was gone, and from what it seemed, they had absolutely no ways to find her, or any clues to her whereabouts.  
  
None whatsoever.  
  
She had vanished.  
  
*  
  
The touch of a gentle hand brought Amara back to the real world. She expected to see Ororo there, perhaps, when she opened her eyes, or maybe Kitty there with some kind of horrible food to 'cure' her. Even Logan would have been a grateful sight, even though he would undoubtedly be angry with her for taking off in the middle of the night.  
  
But the face that was peering down at her, eyes full of concern, was not that of one of the mutants at the Institute.  
  
"You 'k?" asked a voice, heavy with an Australian accent.  
  
Instinct made Amara push him away with her hands, and she shuffled back as far as she could, trying to put as much distance between herself and the mutant in front of her.  
  
Unfortunately, that was only about half a metre.  
  
"Amara?" asked John. "You 'k?"  
  
Amara tossed her head to the side, indignant. "No, I am not! How can you ask that when you have kidnapped me?!"  
  
John paused. "Um, Amara? I didn't kidnap you."  
  
"How stupid do I look?"  
  
John didn't answer that question. "I didn't kidnap you," he repeated. "I found you, wandering in the middle of the night, and brought you here." He smiled brightly.  
  
Amara looked around. She was sitting on a bed in what seemed to be a bedroom. A nice one, too. "Where is here?"  
  
"Not Magneto's secret base, if that's what you're thinking. I'm not as dumb as I look, y'know."  
  
Amara decided not to answer that question.  
  
"Uh, huh." Amara wasn't convinced by all of this.  
  
Suddenly, John jumped up from the chair he had been sitting on. "Where are my manners?!" He ran a hand through his hair, which, Amara noticed, were like flames, licking down towards his eyes, eyes which threatened to swallow her up and. . .  
  
Amara shook her head, clearing it of. . . whatever it was.  
  
"Would you like something to drink?"  
  
Amara nodded, biting her tongue.  
  
After a few moments, John returned from, what she assumed was, the kitchen, a mug in his hands. Steam rose up from inside the mug.  
  
"Here you go." He handed the mug to Amara.  
  
Carefully, Amara took it, and gingerly looked inside. It was hot chocolate, and from the looks of things, it was made just the way she liked it.  
  
She smiled, briefly. "Thank you."  
  
John seemed to blush, but he hid it well. "You're welcome, Amara."  
  
Just as Amara raised the mug to her lips, a voice echoed in her mind. "Amara!" The sound of Xavier's voice - she knew instantly that it was his - caused such a fright that the mug fell out of her already trembling hands, and landed, ever so slowly, on the floor, spilling its contents everywhere.  
  
"Oh, no! I'm sorry!" cried Amara softly, shifting off the bed so that she was on her knees next to the brown puddle that was still steaming slightly.  
  
John seemed to have had the same idea, as suddenly Amara found herself on the floor, her eyes perfectly level with his.  
  
And this time she could not escape.  
  
She was so trapped in his eyes, so swallowed up by the sight of them, that she made no move to escape or resist, as he leaned forward. . . . . .and gently pressed his lips to hers. 


	8. Extinguished Trust

Trial by Fire  
  
Chapter Eight: Extinguished Trust  
  
Time seemed to stand still as Amara and John kissed, and the pool of hot chocolate on the floor was forgotten. Everything around them was dulled, but the other was heightened: their world contained only them, and their lives were only made of what was happening just then.  
  
Amara felt the fire inside her burn stronger and brighter, and somehow she could sense John's reaction as well. It was as if they were linked, and everything that was happening to Amara was happening in John as well, and vice versa. Every thought - not that there were many - word and idea flowed from Amara to John and back again, forming a never-ending circle so that eventually neither of them knew where one of them ended and the other began.  
  
They were one, one great fire that had only begun to burn.  
  
Everything that had happened before was not even a candle to what they were feeling now. Their bodies and minds flared up, sparking and crackling into flame, that primal essence that made Amara and drove John to do his acts.  
  
Fire.  
  
Finally, like the fire that was such an important part of their lives, they ran out of air, and their world seemed to slowly extinguish, and they reluctantly pulled apart, breaking the magic that had surrounded them.  
  
They dared not speak; but their eyes spoke for them. Amara's in particular, for it was she who had been feeling this need, this connection, the strongest. She had felt it long before the fire angel appeared before John, but that did not matter. They had found each other.  
  
*  
  
"Any word, Charles?"  
  
Xavier lowered the Cerebro interface slowly, and bowed his head slightly. "I'm not sure," he replied quietly.  
  
"What do you mean?" asked Ororo. "Couldn't you find her?"  
  
"For a moment I thought I had found her, but then, I lost her. Something seemed to be. . . blocking me."  
  
"What are you saying?"  
  
"I'm saying that something - or someone - may not want her to be found."  
  
*  
  
Back at the motel (man, that did not sound right!) John and Amara were still reeling from the after-effects of that kiss. After all, it is not everyday that you find somebody who is so much like you, yet so different; someone who seems to complete you, in a way that does not make any sense at all, yet you trust that this is what is right.  
  
Trust.  
  
Now there was something that was bothering Amara, now that she was separated from John - for the moment, at least.  
  
How could she trust someone who she knew was wrong for her in every single way possible - and was her enemy?  
  
Some people would have asked her, what did a trivial thing like that matter, when you have found someone most people never would? Why spend time worrying about that - something which might never even happen, when you have something so magical, so wonderful, so beautiful, right in front of you?  
  
What matters more - the possibility of a future which may not even happen?  
  
Or the here and now?  
  
Amara did not know.  
  
On one hand, she had her duty as a student of Xavier, of one day being an X- Man, whose job was to protect humans and mutants from those who wished to do them harm. If she was to turn her back on that, would she be giving up her only chance to convince humans that she was not their enemy, that she did not wish them harm, that she was no evil?  
  
And then there was John.  
  
John, who was watching her right then, his eyes filled with concern, and such a gentle sweetness that it was all she could do not to kiss him again. John, who had made her feel more alive than she had ever felt before, and who had filled her with fire, making her burn like a thousand suns. John, who she knew then and there would be a great part of her life, even if he was not there to share it with her.  
  
Could she give him up?  
  
If it came down to it, would she give him up?  
  
Would she choose to forsake what she knew was right, and not help those in need, as she had been trained to do?  
  
Or would she choose to walk in a world of cold and darkness, live a life without fire, and without John?  
  
Amara did not know.  
  
*  
  
"Have they heard anything?"  
  
Jean shook her had. "No, they haven't."  
  
Tabitha kicked the wall. "Damn it!" She sat down, and nursed her now sore foot.  
  
"It's your own fault," Scott reminded her.  
  
Tabitha scowled, but said nothing.  
  
"Listen," said Jean, getting up from her seat. "I know that you're worried about Amara, but there's nothing we can do right now. We have to wait for Professor Xavier and the others to do their jobs. And if - when - they find something, we'll follow their lead."  
  
"I know," grumbled Tabitha. "But I just hate this. I hate feeling so -"  
  
"Helpless?"  
  
Tabitha lowered her head. "Yeah." She went back to looking at her foot.  
  
*  
  
"Amara?"  
  
She looked up at the sound of the voice. It was John, of course. He was the only one there. But still, hearing his voice seemed strange, and like a surprise. She was new to all of this. But so was John. He was as confused - and amazed - as she was, she realised with a start. Something like this would be a shock and surprise to anyone.  
  
"Amara?"  
  
Amara smiled at John. They barely knew each other, and yet he already cared for her, wanted to protect her.  
  
Barely knew each other. . . no, thought Amara, that was not right. They may have only met a few brief times, but that did not mean that they did not know each other. They knew each other better than even they could comprehend.  
  
It was as if. . . Amara struggled for a way to describe it. . . as if they had already spent a lifetime together, knowing each other, being with each other.  
  
And then they had been torn apart. Torn apart for so long that neither of them remembered, or even realised, that the other existed. Until they were suddenly reunited, and everything just came flooding back. It was painful and wonderful at the same time, and Amara loved that. It was like fire, dangerous and beautiful, able to create and destroy.  
  
It was like fire.  
  
Just like them.  
  
*  
  
Scott stopped in the middle of his twenty-third time of pacing around the room when Logan and Hank came in.  
  
"Oh, come on!" cried Kurt, who had been watching, with a group of the other students. "One more time, and I would have been twenty dollars richer!"  
  
"You know what that means, Kurt. Pay up!"  
  
"You can pay Kitty later, Kurt," said Hank. "But now we've got to go get Amara."  
  
"What?!"  
  
"You heard what he said," replied Logan. "Xavier just got a reading on where Amara is. You know what comes next."  
  
"Yes, sir!"  
  
The students raced to get to their respective changing areas, and get into their uniforms for what they assumed would be an easy mission.  
  
Hank and Logan remained in the room for a few moments.  
  
"What's wrong, Logan?"  
  
"We should have waited."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"I had my money on twenty-five."  
  
*  
  
The X-Men leapt from the X-Van and looked about, confused.  
  
"This is the last place I got a reading on Amara," explained Professor X. "Everyone fan out, and look for her."  
  
The X-Men nodded, and went on their separate ways. Storm and Jean took to the air, Shadowcat went straight through a wall, Nightcrawler disappeared in a flash of smoke, Cyclops and Iceman went down the main road, while Wolverine and Beast went down an alley. Boom Boom and Berzerker went down another alley, and Shadowcat came out through a wall.  
  
"What's wrong?" asked Professor X.  
  
"Rats! Gross!" Then she went through a different wall of a different building.  
  
*  
  
Jean was the first to find her.  
  
She had used her telepathy to call for Amara from the air. "Amara! Magma! Amara!"  
  
Finally she got a reply. "Jean?"  
  
"Oh, Amara! Thank goodness you're safe! We're all worried about you!"  
  
Amara's mental voice sounded confused. "You are?"  
  
"Of course we are! Where are you?"  
  
"Down here," came the gentle reply.  
  
Jean looked around from high above. "Where? I don't see you."  
  
"Hold on. I'll come outside."  
  
True to her word, a few moments later, Jean could see Amara come out from a building.  
  
"Everyone!" she called mentally. "I found her!"  
  
"Good work," came Professor X's voice. "We'll be with you soon."  
  
"All right." In the meantime, Jean floated back to earth, landing just in front of Amara.  
  
"Hi, Jean." Amara just stood there, staring at her. There was something different about Amara, something that Jean could not place. But that did not matter. Amara was safe.  
  
"Amara. Are you all right?" she asked.  
  
"I'm fine." Amara's voice was listless, and it sounded as if she was reluctant to return home. "Really."  
  
It was about then that the rest of the X-Men showed up, and the relief on their faces was obvious when they saw that Amara was safe.  
  
"Come on, girl," said Boom Boom. "It's time to go home."  
  
"Yeah. About that. . ." Amara's voice trailed off, but no one really noticed, as they were busy watching another figure that had just stepped out from the shadows behind Amara.  
  
Wolverine growled as the one he knew as Pyro approached. "What are you doing here?" he asked, waving his claws menacingly.  
  
John shrugged his shoulders. "Free country, isn't it?"  
  
"Amara, come here," said Storm. "We'll protect you."  
  
Amara looked around. She saw John, but looked past him. "From what?" she asked, turning back to face the X-Men. "I don't see anything."  
  
"Are you crazy?!" demanded Iceman. "Pyro's standing right there!" When he saw John take a step forward, he shot an icebeam in front of his feet. "Don't take one more step! I'm warning you!"  
  
John ignored the warning, and with each step he took came another blast of ice. It seemed he did not care about any attack that was thrown his way. So much so he did nothing as Cyclops reached for his visor, ready to blast him. . .  
  
"STOP!"  
  
The cry stopped everything, and everyone turned to look at Amara.  
  
"Just stop! Don't hurt him! He didn't hurt me!"  
  
"But Amara!"  
  
"Just don't!" To make sure that no one did anything more to put John in danger, Amara took a few firm steps until she was standing in the way of any more possible attacks. "Don't hurt him. Please. He hasn't done anything to me."  
  
The adults looked at each other. "All right," said Beast eventually. "We'll just go. Come on, Amara. Let's go home."  
  
"No."  
  
Every pair of eyebrows belonging to the X-Men (except for Cyclops', whose were hidden) shot into the air. "What?!"  
  
"I'm not going home."  
  
"Why not?!" everyone said at once. But as they spoke, they got their answer.  
  
John came up from behind Amara, until he was standing next to Amara. And everyone's eyes became as wide as dinner plates (again, save Cyclops) when they saw him intertwine his fingers with Amara's.  
  
"You've got to be joking!"  
  
"No way!"  
  
But when Amara slowly shook her head, they knew that she was not joking, and that it was for real.  
  
And that was when Amara knew that she had lost their trust. It had been extinguished.  
  
Just like a candle. 


	9. Burning Souls

Regina: Hey, all. How's it going? I'll pretend that I got some replies, even though it is pretty much impossible for me to hear them, let alone answer them. First term of what I suppose to be my senior year is over, and now I'm on holidays. That means I have a lot more time on my hands to write. Downside, I have to go back to school for the first week anyway, to do this computer course. I'm learning how to use Flash and Fireworks for web design, so I suppose it's not all bad. I'll be able to make my websites a whole lot cooler, that's for sure. Not that anyone's gonna see them, as nobody seems to go visit them. It's really sad when I go look at my site stats and the majority of the visits is just me checking to see if my site's still there - bit like Tyler from 'My Hero'. If you haven't seen that show, I suggest you go find out! It's so funny, and it's one of the few shows that have made me fall of my chair with laughter more than once. Maybe I could get Thermoman to advertise my sites? Might be easier to get one of the X-Men etc. to do that instead! Ah, one of the perks of being a writer: you get to be omnipotent. Note to all of those people who don't own a Dictionary, or can't be bothered going off to Dictionary.com (which has this really cool translator bit, by the way. A group of us translated a whole bunch of insults from English to Polish, so we could maybe use them on Magneto if we wanted to. Not that we can pronounce them!), omnipotent means 'all-powerful' (not to be confused with omniscient, which means 'all- knowing'. I guess you could say Professor X is kinda omniscient, then).  
  
Anyway, back to this little intro. thing I've got going on here. First, the disclaimer: I own nada. Not the bakery (although I really could go for one of those cakes in the windows, one where you can put a picture on it. Maybe a they can do a nice pic of a mutant. I know they have done Pokémon ones before!), but nothing. Send me $5 and I will send you absolutely nothing! Talk about a bargain! I also don't own X-Men: Evolution or anything to do with it (although I am the Owner/Moderator of a brand-spanking new Beast Yahoo! Group, 'Beauty of the Beast'. I don't own Yahoo! either.)  
  
Secondly, I have a few thanks. First one goes to A Pyro's Rage. Thank you for all your reviews, and namely that quote about the burning souls. I know I've already thanked you for this, but it never hurts to advertise. That reminds me, I've got to finish reading that story of yours, the one about the boy with the blood transplant. So far it's looking good. Anyway, the burning souls quote is what inspired both this chapter, and a poem which seems to be written from Amara's point of you, also entitled 'Burning Souls'. If you want to read it, you can find it on my website, Randomland. I won't put the address up here (it's in my bio though), because whenever I do, the computer screws up, and I lose half the chapter I have tried to upload.  
  
Second thanks goes to the kind people at SOOP (I think its full title is the 'Spasticated Order of People', but I'm not sure, and I don't want to ask) for changing their meeting day from a Wednesday to a Tuesday, so I could come along on time, as I will not have a Prefect meeting. Their website should be up and running, so I'll let you know about that soon.  
  
Third thanks goes to Yahoo! and Geocities, for hosting both my Yahoo! Group, and my websites. I will recommend you when SOOP goes on-line.  
  
Last thanks goes to you, the reader. You make me feel all loved and happy whenever I see that little thing in my e-mail that says 'Review Alert'! Warm fuzzies all around!  
  
Trial by Fire  
  
Chapter Nine: Burning Souls  
  
"Stockholm Syndrome."  
  
"Excuse me?"  
  
"Stockholm Syndrome," repeated Hank. "It's the only explanation."  
  
"What's Stockholm Syndrome?" asked Tabitha.  
  
"Well," said Hank, trying to think of a way to explain it to the anxious teenagers, "it's a condition that some kidnapping victims -"  
  
"KIDNAPPING?!" screeched everyone.  
  
"- suffer from when they undergo an ordeal with their kidnappers, and they form a bond with them. I suspect that's what has happened to Amara," finished Hank.  
  
"Maybe Magneto has one of his cronies using mind control," suggested Kitty, "and that's why Amara is like she is."  
  
"She had been acting oddly for a while, before she left," added Tabitha.  
  
"That's another possibility," said Hank.  
  
"I didn't pick up on anything when we were with her, though," interrupted Jean.  
  
"Nor did I," said Xavier. "But that does not mean we should dismiss that possibility," he added, noticing the worried looks on his students' faces. He knew what they were thinking, and why they were worried: they all thought that Amara had willingly gone over to the other side, because she was in love with Pyro.  
  
Trying to calm the students down, and quell their fears, Xavier finished with, "At least we know where she is, and that, for the moment, she is safe."  
  
*  
  
"We've got to go, Amara."  
  
Amara said nothing as she watched John pack the few belongings and clothes he had with him into a backpack.  
  
"I said, we've got to go," said John, his voice strained. "They know where you are. We've got to go. Unless. . ." John's voice trailed off there.  
  
"It's just. . ." Amara struggled for words to describe how she felt ". . . the way they all looked at me. Like I betrayed them."  
  
John did not sugar-coat it. "You did betray them, love."  
  
Amara's deep brown eyes widened. "How can you say that?!"  
  
"I'm sorry, love, but it's the truth," John replied. "You did betray them, because you stayed here with me, and didn't go home with them." He tried to touch her shoulder in a comforting gesture, but she pushed him away.  
  
"Don't touch me! This is all your fault! I wish I had never met you! None of this would have happened if it wasn't for you!"  
  
Although John seemed to be deeply hurt by what Amara was saying, he pressed on. "Are you sure, Amara?" he asked. "Are you sure?"  
  
"About what?"  
  
"That none of this would never have happened if we hadn't met?" John's eyes held a fire that frightened even Amara.  
  
"What do you mean?" asked Amara. It appeared as though her anger had been doused with water, and extinguished.  
  
"This is going to sound really corny, but I promise you, I mean this, but," here John took a deep breath, before continuing, "I loved you before I even knew who you were, before I had even seen you. That's why I was so surprised when I saw you at the Institute."  
  
So it had been surprise, thought Amara. I wasn't imagining it.  
  
Then something else registered, something else John had said.  
  
"Oh," whispered Amara. "Oh. Oh, oh, oh."  
  
"Yes," whispered John in reply, before reaching over an enfolding Amara into his arms. "I love you," he whispered into her hair. "And I'll never let anyone take you away from me. I promise."  
  
Hearing this whispered promise, Amara pulled away slightly, so that she could look into John's eyes. She began to speak, but whatever it was that she was going to say was smothered when John bowed his head, and kissed her again.  
  
Unlike the first kiss, which was tentative, and almost fearful, this one burned with the inner fires of John and Amara.  
  
As Amara and John lost themselves in each other, their souls burned brighter than ever before, and the beauty of those souls were such that there were no words to describe them.  
  
*  
  
"We've got to do something!" repeated Tabitha for what seemed to be the thousandth time. "We just can't stay here and let him. . ." here she trailed off, going into words that I will not repeat here.  
  
"Tabitha!"  
  
Tabitha seemed to crumple. "That's just what she would have said if she were here. Just like that, too."  
  
"I know it's hard," said Jean, "but we have to trust Professor Xavier and the other adults. They know what they're doing."  
  
"No, they don't," interrupted Roberto. "They don't have a clue what they're going to do."  
  
"Roberto's right," agreed Ray. "We can't stay here and just wait."  
  
"But we can't go out without the adults," countered Scott.  
  
"Since when has that ever stopped us?" asked Rogue dryly.  
  
"Then it's settled," said Kitty. "We're all going out to get Amara!"  
  
"Yeah!" shouted Ray.  
  
"Let's go get Amara!" added Kurt, jumping up from the couch.  
  
"Let's go!" Jamie's voice joined the shouts.  
  
Everyone stopped, turned to face the boy, and in one voice said, "You're not coming, Jamie!"  
  
"Why not?" Jamie pouted.  
  
"You're too little!"  
  
"Aw, man! I never get to do any of the cool stuff!"  
  
*  
  
The night sky sparkled with thousands of stars as John and Amara silently slipped out of the motel room.  
  
"What are we going to do about the key?" asked Amara, as John shut the door behind him.  
  
"You're serious?! After all that's happened, you're worried about a key?"  
  
Amara had to struggle to keep from giggling. "Sorry."  
  
John flashed a grin at Amara. "It's all right." With that, he took Amara's hand, and led her off into the darkness. "Trust me," was all he said.  
  
"I do," was Amara's only reply.  
  
*  
  
"Take a left here!" ordered Jean suddenly.  
  
"But the motel's to the right!" replied Cyclops.  
  
"Just go left!" ordered Jean.  
  
Backseat driver, Cyclops mentally grumbled to himself as he indicated that he was going left.  
  
"I heard that," said Jean.  
  
"Jean!"  
  
Giggles came from the backseat of the X-Van, despite the seriousness of the mission.  
  
"Why did we go left?" asked Shadowcat.  
  
"She's down this way," Jean replied tersely.  
  
"Is he with her?" There was no need to say who he was.  
  
"Yes," Jean nodded grimly. "Stop the car!"  
  
The X-Van screeched to a halt as Cyclops slammed on the breaks. "Now what?"  
  
"Everyone out!" ordered Jean.  
  
Everyone looked at Cyclops. "Just do what she says," he said, in reply to the unspoken question. "Trust me, you'll be much better off it you do," he muttered.  
  
"I heard that."  
  
Anymore arguing that was about to go down was interrupted by Boom Boom's shout. "Look! There she is!"  
  
Caught like a deer in the headlights was Amara, staring at them with wide brown eyes. John was with her.  
  
Seeing the X-Men, he moved to put himself between them and Amara, wrapping a protective arm around her. "I promised I would not let anyone take you away from me," he muttered. "And I never break a promise."  
  
With his free hand, John pulled his lighter from his pocket, and summoned a flame. Calling upon the strength of his power, he summoned a flame greater than even he could have imagined it. It swirled around him and Amara, forming a protective barrier.  
  
Higher and higher the flames danced, until it became clear to both sides that John was not going to give up without a fight.  
  
The air shimmered with heat, and the two people held in the centre of the flames stood there, their souls burning brighter together than they ever had apart. 


	10. The Captive within the Flames

Regina: Well, it's here. The next chapter for Trial by Fire. You know (okay, maybe you don't!), I went online a while back, and went looking for some good Amyro sites, and do you know what? There was only one (that I could find)! And that site was the Amyro Fanfiction Archives - it's a great site, though, so go and visit it if you have time. But that's not what I was getting into. You know that old saying, 'If you want something done right, do it yourself'? Well, I was working on a Flash animation, when I decided: I'm going to build my own Amyro shrine! It's still being built, but (I think) it's going to be good when it's done. It's got these cool rollover buttons, which change from fire to a pic of either John or Amara (I'm sorry, I'm just really proud of those!), and hopefully it'll have fan stuff (if people want to submit it. It'd be a good thing, as otherwise the site would have no fan art, as I can't draw!), an image gallery, and links to other John and Amara sites (those are really hard to find, too! Anyone know any good ones?). Anyway, the site'll be called Burning Souls (like the chapter, and the poem I wrote). I can't put the address up here, because when I do, the chapter won't upload properly. But I'll put it in my bio, and I'll tell you this. The site is on Yahoo! Geocities, and the ID is burning_souls_shrine. So give me about a week, and the first few pages (at least) should be up.  
  
Oh, and to make things clear, I own nothing mentioned in this story.  
  
Trial by Fire  
  
Chapter Ten: The Captive within the Flames  
  
Amara gripped John's hand as she watched the flames build up around them. The heat did not affect her in anyway, nor did it John. But through the flames she could see the worried eyes of her friends as they watched her, John and the flames.  
  
But although she was surrounded by heat, and the presence of fire would have, in any other circumstances, been comforting, she could not ignore the icy fingertips of fear that were working their way up her spine. She almost shivered with the thought that her friends and John seemed on the verge of fighting each other.  
  
Over her.  
  
Everything seemed to be happening as though it were a dream - the sound had a faded quality to it, and her vision was slightly hazy.  
  
"I'm sorry, Amara," she heard Boom Boom say, "but this is just the way it has to be." She began to rub her hands together.  
  
"Tabitha?" Amara whispered. Her voice, too, held a dream-like quality to it, making what was going on around her seem even less real.  
  
"No," interrupted Iceman. "Let me."  
  
Boom Boom stopped rubbing her hands together, and did not create the explosive she had been about to. Instead, she let Iceman move to the front line of attack, where he iced over, ready to try his luck against the wall of flames that, in his opinion, held Amara captive.  
  
"Let her go," he warned John.  
  
John did not reply, but the wall of flames that surrounded him and Amara grew taller, and the heat they gave out made the X-Men retreat slightly, until Jean threw up a protective telekinetic shield as a defence measure. Her hand went to her temple as she struggled to keep the shield up as the flames increased in size and temperature.  
  
"John," Amara whispered suddenly. "Stop this."  
  
He did not look at her. "I made a promise, love."  
  
"They're my friends," she pleaded.  
  
"Not anymore." His voice was cold.  
  
"Please." The tears that leaked from her eyes instantly evaporated due to the heat that surrounded her and John. "Let's just go."  
  
This time John looked at her. She could not read the emotion in his eyes.  
  
"Amara!" shouted Boom Boom.  
  
Amara looked at John silently.  
  
With a motion of his hands, the flames dissipated. With a sigh of relief, the shield protecting the X-Men was dropped, and Jean almost collapsed, allowing herself to rest now that the strain now over. Cyclops caught her before she hit the ground.  
  
"Thank you," Amara whispered, squeezing John's hand slightly.  
  
He looked from her, to the X-Men, then back at her. "Let's go."  
  
Without waiting for a reply, he began walking off, taking Amara with him.  
  
The X-Men watched them go in silence.  
  
*  
  
Logan glared at the students when they returned to the mansion. "What were you thinking?" he asked, his voice bordering on a growl.  
  
"We wanted to bring Amara back," Tabitha replied without hesitation. "Since you guys weren't doing anything about it, we -"  
  
"Took matters into your own hands," Logan interrupted, his voice highlighting the fact that he was less than pleased with the students. He looked from one student to the next, staring them down. They all stared back, keeping their ground.  
  
"Whose idea was this?" Logan asked when their staring bout revealed no new information. "Speak up!"  
  
"It was all our idea," Bobby replied.  
  
"We all agreed to do this together," added Kitty.  
  
Logan's eyes narrowed. "And what happened then?" His voice was deadly whisper.  
  
"We found them," Jean said.  
  
"And?"  
  
Silence.  
  
"Well?" asked Logan. "I'm not going to wait around all day for you to tell me. There are other ways of finding out, but it'll be better for all of you if you tell me, straight up, what happened."  
  
"Pyro was there," said Rogue.  
  
"Was that so?" The students were unsure whether Logan was being sarcastic at that point in time. "What did he do?"  
  
"He made a wall of fire around him and Amara," replied Scott. "There was nothing we could do."  
  
"Nothing you could do? Nothing you could do?! You could have come to us first! That's what you could have done! Did you think of that?"  
  
"No."  
  
Logan folded his arms across his chest. "Thought so."  
  
The teenagers waited for him to let loose, and attack them with whatever he had been storing up since they had left in search of Amara, but it never came. Instead, Logan seemed to calm down, and said, "That can't be helped now. We're going to go see the Prof. instead." He began to walk away, but when he saw that none of the students were following, he turned around and said, "You coming?"  
  
It was a rhetorical question.  
  
"Yes, Logan," they all chorused, and ran to catch up with their teacher.  
  
*  
  
"Amara, look at me."  
  
The girl did not move.  
  
"Amara, look at me," John repeated. "Please, love." John's voice was pleading, almost desperate.  
  
Slowly, reluctantly, Amara looked up into John's worried eyes. But she did not speak.  
  
She was seated on the cold ground, curled up, and her face had been buried in her lap until John had coaxed her to look up. John sat beside her, and cautiously put one arm around her shoulders. When she did not fight him off, or anything like that, he assumed it was safe enough to pull her close.  
  
After what seemed like an eternity of just being in that position, safe in John's arms, Amara finally spoke. "What have I done?" Her voice was the barest whisper, and John had to strain to hear it clearly.  
  
"What do you mean, love?" John's voice was gentle.  
  
"This is all my fault," she replied, tearing away from John's embrace.  
  
John opened his mouth, as if he was about to speak, but closed it again before any sound came out of his mouth. He had to let her release it all, all the emotion she was feeling.  
  
"If I hadn't done this, I would still be at the Institute, and none of this would have happened. Everything would be normal," she added, almost as an afterthought.  
  
"Love, we're mutants. Nothing that ever happens to us is normal. This most certainly isn't." He reached out and cupped her cheek in one hand. "If you hadn't done this, you would still be at the Institute, and not here with me. Would you want that? Would you want that this had never happened? That we had never met?"  
  
Amara shook her head violently. "No! Never! I love you, John." That was the first time she had said it aloud, and it felt good to say it. It made things seem more real, more concrete, and stronger, less able to be destroyed. It was a good feeling.  
  
"And I love you, too, Amara. You can't fight it. It's destiny. They don't know it yet, and that is something they will never understand."  
  
"Never?" Amara asked.  
  
"Never," John confirmed. "They will always be trying to tear us apart, no matter where we are, what we do. They will never understand what this is. And they will always hate me for this, Amara. They will always see me as the enemy, and that I took you away."  
  
"Then what do we do?"  
  
John grinned, but his eyes seemed sad for a moment as he said, "I have an idea." 


	11. Slumbering Flames

Regina: I'm going to make this short. Thanks everyone.  
  
Trial by Fire  
  
Chapter Eleven: Slumbering Flames  
  
"You have an idea?" asked Amara. "What? Tell me!"  
  
John shook his head. "They won't try to come after us for a while, I think, so we've got a few hours. I'll tell you then."  
  
"Tell me what then?"  
  
John smiled grimly. "Nice try," he replied, swooping in to kiss her briefly. "I won't fall for that trick that easily. At least," he added, "not as easily as I fell for you."  
  
Amara felt warmth flood her body at the remark (although it could have also been due to the kiss).  
  
"You just have to trust me, Amara. Can you do that?"  
  
Amara nodded. "I trust you with my life."  
  
"Just what I was afraid of," replied John with a grin. "You just have to do exactly what I say, and everything will be - all right." John's voice cracked on the last two words.  
  
"John? Are you all right?" Amara's voice reflected her concern for the man she loved.  
  
John shrugged it off. "Fine, love. Just distracted. Are we going to do this, or what?"  
  
"Do what? You haven't told me what we're doing!"  
  
John laughed. "Have I told you how much I love you?"  
  
Amara thought seriously. "Only as often as you can."  
  
John kissed her gently. "You never know when you might lose everything." He looked away, at the night sky that enveloped the two of them. "Come on, we've got to go," he added, taking her hand and leading her away.  
  
Amara knew better than to ask.  
  
*  
  
"We drove her away, didn't we?"  
  
Jean sat down next to Tabitha. "No, we didn't. It's not your fault."  
  
"But it is!" replied Tabitha, slamming her clenched fists. "If we had just paid attention to her we would have seen it!"  
  
"Seen what?" asked Jean.  
  
"The way he looked at her! You were there, Bobby, tell her! Pyro looked at her, as if he recognised her!"  
  
Bobby nodded slowly. "He stopped when he saw her. And then he attacked her, but stopped -"  
  
"-when she transformed!" Tabitha finished. "He knew her! That's why he came back!"  
  
"But how?" asked Scott, joining the conversation. "He never met her before all of this. We'd know if he had."  
  
"I don't know how, but he knew her," Tabitha replied. "Not her, exactly, but -' she stopped suddenly, struck by a realisation. "She knew him, too!"  
  
"What?!"  
  
"Amara knew him, too!" Tabitha's eyes were bright as she continued. "She recognised him that day, too! And we said so ourselves, she hadn't been the same since Pyro attacked her! And those dreams she'd been having. . ."  
  
". . . were about him," said Jean, picking up on where Tabitha had left off.  
  
"She cried out a name the night she disappeared," added Kitty. "John."  
  
"And that's what she called him the second time we. . . oh, no," said Scott.  
  
"Oh, yes," said Tabitha.  
  
"Wasn't she kept after school because she had used her powers?" asked Kitty.  
  
"She said that it wasn't her that made the flame move by itself," said Tabitha.  
  
"Then he must have been at the school!"  
  
"I heard Principal Kelly talking the next day about some mutant up a tree," Kurt added to the mix. "I thought he was just talking about me."  
  
Tabitha shook her head. "No. That was him."  
  
"This is much worse than we thought."  
  
"Much, much, much worse."  
  
"So, what are we going to do?"  
  
"I don't know."  
  
*  
  
"John, what do you have planned?"  
  
John kept on walking, his hand still in Amara's.  
  
"John? What are you going to do?"  
  
He turned around and faced her. "Make you happy," he said with a smile.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Your happiness is one of the most important things to me. So, I'm going to make you happy."  
  
"Is this part of the plan?" asked Amara.  
  
"Maybe. Trust me on this."  
  
*  
  
Xavier, Ororo, Hank and Logan looked at the information their students had presented them.  
  
"He had this planned from the beginning?" Xavier asked finally.  
  
"I don't think so," Hank said. "Amara left here of her own free will."  
  
"I wouldn't agree with 'own free will'," Logan growled. "There's something not quite right here."  
  
"We know that, Logan," replied Ororo. "But we have to look at every option before making our move."  
  
"I'll tell you what I'll move will be," Logan replied. "I'll go out there and get her back."  
  
"We've tried that," Hank replied. "Twice. And both times we have failed."  
  
"From what the children tell us, he's protecting her," added Ororo.  
  
"We can only hope that he doesn't hurt her."  
  
*  
  
"I promised I would never let anyone hurt you. And that includes me."  
  
"But I don't understand. What you're saying is -"  
  
"I know what I'm saying. You said you trusted me, so just go along with this."  
  
"No!" Amara replied strongly. "I won't do this! You can't make me!"  
  
"Love, I don't want this either, I don't want to see you hurt!" John's voice was pleading.  
  
"Then why?" she asked, tears in her eyes.  
  
"Because I love you," John said finally. He held her hand tightly in one of his own, and with the other, took hold of her chin, and lifted her face up, so she could look into his eyes.  
  
Something about this was eerily familiar to Amara. But she couldn't quite place it in this darkness.  
  
"John," she whispered.  
  
"Shh," he whispered back. And then he kissed her on the forehead. His lips trailed down through her hair, to her eyes and finally to her cheek.  
  
He pulled away, before kissing her on the lips, and his eyes were so sad that her own began to well up in response.  
  
And with a sudden awareness, Amara knew why this was so familiar.  
  
It was exactly like her dream. The one she had had the night she had left, and started all of this.  
  
And just like in that dream, John whispered, "I'm sorry."  
  
Amara knew what was going to happen next, and she wasn't going to let him push her away like he had done in the dream, the foreshadowing of what was going to happen.  
  
Gripping him strongly, Amara pulled him to her, and kissed him hard. She refused to let go, even when her vision was going black and she began seeing stars, because she knew the moment she let go, he would leave, and be gone for good.  
  
But John was stronger, physically, and perhaps, emotionally, if he could make a decision like this. And he broke the kiss.  
  
"I love you, Amara, and I don't want to do this," he whispered against her lips, as if by doing that, he could save another, and another kiss. "This is the only way. Remember I love you, and remember this."  
  
He whispered something else against her lips, something that filled her heart, and something she would never forget.  
  
"I love you," he whispered finally.  
  
"I love you, too. And I'll never forget."  
  
"Neither will I."  
  
"I love you," they said as one.  
  
And that was the last thing they did as one, as John let go of Amara, and disappeared forever into the night.  
  
And the fire that was inside Amara burned cold.  
  
After what seemed like an eternity, and she was sure that John was not coming back, Amara walked up the hill towards the mansion that was her home.  
  
*  
  
"Hey, Amara," Tabitha said, two nights after Amara had returned. "Can I come in?"  
  
Amara looked away from the view of the night sky that her window gave her. "Sure."  
  
Cautiously Tabitha entered the room. "Are you all right?"  
  
Truthfully, Amara shook her head. "No. And I don't think I'll ever be. I loved him, Tabitha, and he loved me. I'll never get over that."  
  
"Perhaps I should go then, if you need some time alone."  
  
"You don't have to."  
  
Tabitha left anyway, and Amara was secretly relieved.  
  
As soon as the door behind Tabitha closed, Amara smiled, remembering what John had whispered to her. He would be back someday, and she would wait until then. They had gone through their trial by fire, and had come out the other side. But they needed time to recover, and they could only do that apart, until they would one day be reunited.  
  
His words would comfort her until then, and she whispered them, knowing in her heart that he was saying them, too, wherever he was.  
  
"The fire which seems extinguished often slumbers beneath the ashes." 


	12. Trial by Fire

Trial by Fire  
  
Author's Note  
  
Sorry if I made you think that this was another chapter, but there are a few things I need to do before signing this story off completely. (And FF.net says I can write an author's note at the end of the story, so I'm taking advantage of that fact)  
  
Yes, this is the end of Trial by Fire, but don't worry! If you need a random Amyro fix, just check out my newest Amyro story, In the Dreaming.  
  
And if that is not enough, just check out my Amyro website. For some reason, when I write a web address, it doesn't upload the chapter properly, and I lose half the story. So it's a Geocities site, and the ID is burning_souls_shrine.  
  
I would just like to say a big thank you to all of you who reviewed, and extra thanks to those of you who reviewed more than once. It really makes my day when I see the words 'Review Alert' in my inbox.  
  
That line Amara / John said at the end was by a guy named Pierre Corneille who lived from 1606 to 1684. I think it's from a play called 'Rodogune' which was written (I think) in 1644. So, in case anyone asks, I don't own it.  
  
So, thank you to all of your for reading this story. I hope you enjoyed it. I know I enjoyed writing it.  
  
Yours in Amyro (and Evo fandom), Regina, the Queen of Random.  
  
P.S. I still own nothing mentioned in this story! 


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